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Fan Fest Continued

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Continued from the print version of The Blotter…

Maybe you’ve read a tweet or status about it. Maybe you overheard a group of kids at the next lunch table over. Maybe you’re in one.

Samantha Titus Extra Coverage

Introduction: “I have a friend who lives in England, and he got me to start watching Doctor Who. I started watching Sherlock myself because I heard a lot of great things about it online.”

Role Models: “This sounds super cheesy, but if I’m sad or I feel like I have no one to talk to, I just think of my favorite characters, like Clary or Hermione or the Doctor. I think, ‘What would they do? Their lives are so much harder than mine, and they’re smart enough to get through it. What would they do in this situation? How can I make it better?’ If my favorite characters can get through life and make their dreams come true, so can I. Fandoms give me a sense of well-being.”

Downfalls: “I miss out on a lot. Truth be told, fandoms are a huge obsession of mine, and they take away from my life. On Thanksgiving, I spent some time with my family, but I mostly holed upstairs and read the whole day. My sister dogs on me all the time for wasting so much time on the computer or in my room reading, but I can’t see my life being any different. I don’t particularly want to miss out on reading a thrilling novel or being on the edge of my seat watching a great TV show, even if it gets lonely. There are some good parts and some bad parts, but I can’t see my life going in any other direction.”

Technology: “Technology is the biggest connection I have to my fandoms. After I read a great book, I go online and blog about it. I get tons of responses from [people] like me who love the book and love the characters and can’t go a day without thinking about them. This is even truer with TV shows, since I use my laptop to watch Sherlock and Doctor Who. Without my laptop, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be half as connected to my fandoms as I am now.”

Sabrina Rich Extra Coverage

Beginnings: “I’ve loved Harry Potter since I was three years old. It’s a pretty big part of my life. My mom had the first four books, that was all that had come out at the time. She had the first four books sitting on a bookshelf in my bedroom, a really tall bookshelf. I saw them one day when I was about three years old. I climbed up the bookshelf and grabbed the first one. I was like, ‘Hey Mommy. Can you read this to me?’ And she’s like, ‘I don’t know if you’ll understand it or not.’ But I got hooked on them, and I haven’t gone back since.”

Pottermore.com: “It has a whole bunch of insider information that J.K. Rowling puts up there. Just kind of stuff that wouldn’t have fit into the books, but, ‘hey, this is the backstory on this character’ and things like that. You can chat with other people in the house common rooms. You can brew potions, which is really just to rack up house points. Normally, the house that has the most points gets some early release of information.”

Books vs. Movies: “The first two movies were very good in terms of staying true to the books, and so were the last two, Deathly Hallows Part One and Two. My biggest disappointment was Prisoner of Azkaban, because that is my favorite book of the whole series. The entire plot of the story got cut out for the movie, which made a lot of my cousins who haven’t read the books really confused and kind of made me really angry.”

“Huge” Fans: “If they’ve only watched the movies and they claim to be huge fans, I’m like, ‘You do realize there are books, right?’ One girl actually didn’t know. She just looks at me and her jaw drops and says, ‘They have books? You mean like, books that came out after the movies were made? What?’ And I’m just face palming. And then the people who gave it a shot and decided that they didn’t like it, well, it’s not for everybody. But at least they tried it. If they claim to be huge fans, then in that case, I’m gonna be like, ‘Go read it now’.”